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I'm looking for official 5E items that shed light that the user can change/adjust/alter/choose the radius/size of the light. It does not have to be bright light or dim light specifically; any type of light radius that can be controlled/varied. Just something that the player can choose the radius of light, ideally any value, but increments of 5 or something would be reasonable too.

I've read somewhere that something like one-third of all magic items shed some type of light; this seems a bit high to me. Either way, there definitely are enough light-shedding items that make searching for this special case of adjustable light difficult for me.

In my research I've found some similar text for adjustable light. The first is Will-o'-Wisp, which has:

Variable Illumination. The Will-o'-Wisp sheds bright light in a 5- to 20-foot radius and dim light for an additional number of feet equal to the chosen radius. The will-o'-wisp can alter the radius as a bonus action.

So 5e does have the concept of adjustable/analog light sources. From this wording, I assume the wisp could pick a radius of π × e.

The second source I've found is Crystal Blade. There is a paragraph of text that says:

While you’re holding the sword, you can use a bonus action to cause it to shed bright light in a 30-foot radius and dim light for an additional 30 feet, to cause it to shed dim light in a 10-foot radius, or to douse the light.

This is an item with three pre-defined/discrete settings: on, dim, off.

While the Crystal blade is close, I'm hoping to find an item (or items) that are analog/dynamically variable, like the Will-o'-Wisp's Variable Illumination.

I feel like I recall coming across such an item in the past, but I cannot seem to find it again.

Does anyone know of any such items? Or better yet, how I might go about searching for such a list of such items? I've tried multiple different keywords (like many in this post), but I'm still not finding anything. I'm hopefully if someone can point one item out for me, I might be able to use text/keywords/terms it uses to find similar items.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Do you only want magic items, or can other items be included(such as hooded lanterns and possibly magic candles)? \$\endgroup\$ Commented May 8, 2023 at 0:31
  • \$\begingroup\$ Is there something you're trying to do with this? \$\endgroup\$
    – NotArch
    Commented May 8, 2023 at 14:23
  • \$\begingroup\$ Reminder to everyone that answers, even partials answers or suggestions on how to find an answer, belong in answer posts rather than in comments. \$\endgroup\$
    – Oblivious Sage
    Commented May 9, 2023 at 12:45

2 Answers 2

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The Sun Blade allows for variable light with 5 feet intervals

A Sun Blade allows the wielder to:

use an action to expand or reduce its radius of bright and dim light by 5 feet each, to a maximum of 30 feet each or a minimum of 10 feet each.

There is also the Sword of Zariel, but it is even less variable than the Crystal Blade (from 5ft + 5ft to 15 ft + 15ft).

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Hooded lantern is the simplest answer. Kinda.

With the caveat that, RAW, it doesn't do exactly what you want it to do, it is still an easily accessible and mundane item your players could pick up at any general store.

A hooded lantern casts bright light in a 30 ft radius and dim light for an additional 30 ft. [...] As an action, you can lower the hood, reducing the light to dim light in a 5 ft radius.

As you mentioned in your comment, it only has 2 settings. But you could always talk to your DM about making it truly adjustable. It's not perfect, but it's simple and easy.

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